Pete Koziar

Purnarkish in Five Minutes

There are some words in the book in a language that is called Purnarkish by the crew of The Dauntless.
You might be the kind of person who likes to know what the rules are for pronounciation, and some of the
syntax. I'll even pronounce some
words for you later on. If there's ever any doubt, pronounce them in a way that works for you. No one's going to
grade you, not even me.

Vowels, Consonants, etc.

Consonants are pronounced similarly to their English equivalents.

The vowels are as follows:

"A" as in “father”

"E" as in “pet”

"I" as in “image”

"O" as in “orphan” unless it ends a word, then as in “foe”

"U" as in “sure”

Accents

Accent is generally on the first syllable: PUR-nar-kat

Word Endings

The following endings indicate the number and gender of nouns:

-eh Masculine singular, like “Purnarkeh”

-ee Feminine singular, like “Sharjanee”

-ex Indefinite singular (either masculine or feminine)

-am Masculine plural

-av Feminine plural

-at Indefinite plural, like “Gafrat”

Prepositions

The only one used in the book is “fo” which means “composed of,”
as in “Zinteh fo Gafrat,” i.e. “City [composed] of [those who] wait”

Word Order

Adjectives follow the nouns they modify.

Examples

Here are some examples of how the author would pronounce a few of the words used in the book: